AIR SAFETY
Hyushin 11-114: came down shortly after take-ojj
llyushin stops tests
after 11-114 accident
BY ALEXANDER VELOVICH
IN MOSCOW
Ilyushin's new advanced tur boprop airliner, the 64-seat
11-114, has suffered a serious
setback in its flight-test pro
gramme, following the crash of
one of the first series-produc
tion prototypes on 5 July.
The aircraft crashed about
1.5min after take-off from the
airfield at the Zhukovsky
flight-test centre, 40km (20nm)
east of Moscow, killing five of
the lest crew and seriously
injuring the remaining four.
The 11-114, built at Tashkent
in Uzbekistan, is powered by a
pair of Klimov TV-7-117 turbo-
props, rated at l,765kW
(2,370hp), with six-bladed
sabre-type propellers. The air
craft is intended to take over
from the Antonov An-24 and
Yakovlev Yak-40 fleets.
Official sources decline to
comment on the accident
cause. Eye witnesses say that
one of the propellers appeared
to be windmilling relatively
slowly, but this is unconfirmed.
The aircraft's flight-test pro
gramme has been stopped, but
the manufacturer says that it
hopes for a re-start soon and
that the service-entry date,
planned for late this year, will
not be delayed significantly. D
NEWS IN BRIEF
BRUSSELS BUMPS
Having counted 100 airside
traffic collisions occurring at
Brussels Airport in the last
two years, 57 of them in
volving aircraft, the airport
authority is re-training driv
ers and issuing penalty
points for rulebreaking: too
many points and the driver
loses his job.
Instructor blamed in mystery crash
BY DAVID LEARMOUNT
US investigators are blaming pilot disorientation for the
puzzling crash of a Business
Express Beechcraft 1900C,
which hit the sea off the US
north-east coast during a night
time training flight.
The instructor and two stu
dent pilots died in the accident
on 28 December, 1991. The
disorientation verdict comes in
the final US National Transpor
tation Safety Board (NTSB) re
port, which says that the
aircraft plunged into the sea
"nearly inverted".
It points out, however, that
the cockpit voice recorder
indicating that there was no
stress in the pilots' voices.
About 40-50% of the wreck
age was recovered, but the air
craft had no flight-data
recorder. Having studied the
wreckage and the pilots' con
versation, however, and using
tracking information from the
Boston Center secondary-
surveillance radar, the NTSB
concludes that there had been
nothing wrong with the aircraft
or its engines. Weather and
visibility were good.
The aircraft was on a train
ing flight, using the airfield on
Block Island off the Rhode
Island coast. The instructor,
was in the right-hand seat and
the trainee captain was flying
the aircraft from the left-
hand seat.
At the time of the accident,
the student was carrying out
the standard VOR/DME (VHF
omni-range/distance-measuring
equipment) approach to Run
way 28. The report describes
the exercise as "simulated
night-instrument conditions on
a dark moonless night about
ten miles [16km] east-north
east of Block Island".
The report continues: "The
instructor pilot disabled the
captain-trainee's attitude indi
cator [but did not cover it and
did not allow the trainee to use
the standby attitude-indicator!
and, about 6min later, he simu
lated a failure of the right
engine by retarding the power
lever to the flight-idle position,
which, in effect, introduced
multiple emergencies contrary
to the company's [Beechcraft
1900] operating manual."
From the pilots' conversa
tion, says the NTSB, it became
clear that the trainee pilot real
ised he was becoming disorien
tated, but the instructor
required him to retain control
and carry out a recovery from
an unusual attitude.
During this process, says the
NTSB, the instructor also ap
pears to have become disorien
tated, with the aircraft descend
ing fast in a steep right-hand
turn until impact with the
water, left-wing first, 15s later.
The instructor's only signifi
cant attempt to recover the
situation was to bring the left
engine back to idle.
The NTSB criticises the in
structor for not following the
operating manual and exercis
ing poor judgement in the ex
ercises he attempted, given
the conditions.
The Board criticises the air
line for not supervising its
training procedures closely
enough and the US Federal
Aviation Administration for
not checking the airline's train
ing-supervision standards. •
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